SCORES of rugby enthusiasts in Tylorstown have been left with nowhere safe to train after thieves tore up much of their pitch to steal costly cables.

Tylorstown Rugby Club has become the latest target of thieves, who are thought to strip the expensive wiring to sell on to scrap yards.

The thieves targeted the club between the afternoon of Sunday, September 11, and Tuesday, September 13, tearing up the ground to strip the cable from the field’s lighting.

The club’s manager Brian Scott was alerted to the thefts by the groundsman on Tuesday – and says he has been left with no alternative but to cancel the mini rugby teams’ training sessions and run shorter, inconvenient sessions for the older players.

Mr Scott told the Leader: “The mini section and the ladies’ teams both played on Sunday afternoon, and after that all the flags and posts and everything were locked away in the shed.

“I had a call from the groundsman on Tuesday morning and he could see the wires had been cut, and we knew it was sometime after Tuesday because the shed lock had been broken too.

“As a result, we are now left without lighting, so we’ve been forced to try and find somewhere else to train.

“We’ve had to bring training forward from 7pm to 9pm to 6.30pm to 7.45pm, in the hope we can get some training done before it gets dark, but the nights are getting darker earlier, and the sessions have already been made shorter, so it’s not ideal.

“The mini section can’t train at all because they have no lighting, so we are trying to see if they can use Ferndale astroturf, but that will have to be booked up in advance.

“At the minute we have no idea how much it’s going to cost us to put it right.

“I know to have complete new lighting put in, it’s in the region of £59k.

“I would say to get us up and running again we’re going to be looking at about £10k, I should imagine.

“It’s obviously not the kind of money we have as a club, and at the minute we’re still not certain if the insurance covers us because it’s outside.

“I think personally that it was a job that was planned and there’s obviously a lot of money to be made from it.

“But surely the authorities should be clamping down on how metal and wiring is sold and collected, because it makes other people’s lives a misery.”

A police spokesman described the incident as a “senseless crime which has a huge impact on the community for the sake of making a quick buck”.

He confirmed the police were investigating the incident and urged anyone who may have information to contact the police by calling 101.